Thin Soft Robots set for safety-critical built environments

Developed by a team at the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC) in Manufacturing and On-Wing Technology at Nottingham University, the robots feature multimodal locomotion capabilities that could transform the way industries conduct inspections and maintenance. Their work is detailed in Nature Communications.

Thin Soft Robots (TS-Robots) are 1.7mm thick, enabling them to access and navigate in confined spaces, such as gaps beneath doors.

TS-Robots are equipped with a sandwich structure driven by dielectric elastomers, allowing them to crawl, climb, swim, and transition between solid and liquid domains. This adaptability is said to make them ideal for complex environments that include multiple obstacles across various terrains.

In a statement, Dr Xin Dong, project originator and principal investigator, said: "Our TS-Robots are designed to tackle the scientific challenges of multimodal locomotion in soft robotics, particularly when encountering obstacles such as narrow gaps, trenches, walls, and liquids along their navigation paths.